Hey a friend of mine just gave me his grandfather's copy of Dunninger's Encyclopedia of Magic. I know Dunninger was a legend but as I look through the book I can't find much workable material. Am I missing any treasures?

Close up walk around and kids shows. I'll also design special effects for the local theaters on occasion.

goatearsVeteran user
304 Posts

Posted: Aug 3, 2011 03:52 pm

0

I was kinda hoping there was some fairly commercial mentalism in there, seeing how Dunninger is a legendary mentalist. Most of the effect require big gimmicks for stage presentations, I was just wondering if I was missing anything.

thorndykeRegular user
Canada
147 Posts

Posted: Aug 4, 2011 01:55 am

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It is a compilation of average material designed to reveal very little. Really just a cash in book for Joe that isn't meant for the magic community but the general public.

goatearsVeteran user
304 Posts

Posted: Aug 4, 2011 04:13 pm

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That's kinda what I got from it, there's really no routining or workable explanations.

MehtasInner circle
England, UK
1613 Posts

Posted: Aug 11, 2011 05:11 am

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Just have a laugh looking at some of the methods.

That's how I looked at it.

A Magazine is a bunch of printed pages that tell you what's coming in the next issue.

MoxahallaSpecial user
563 Posts

Posted: Sep 20, 2011 06:14 pm

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The contents are from a series of "Popular Science" magazines - meant for the public (circa 1920s-30s).

SOME workable tricks....but its really a treasure-trove of generating IDEAS & inspiring creations.

A very famous current Asian magician - has done a water tank escape - that is right out of THIS book.

MoxahallaSpecial user
563 Posts

Posted: Sep 22, 2011 02:12 pm

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Correction to my post above:

The 3 issues were titled POPULAR MAGIC, and were issued in 1926 & 1929

A little reworked a lot of them are very useable. I used a levitation illusion gleened from that text which I made from some angle bracket, some cardboard boxes and a bit of cheap cloth. Used it in my show for years with great success. Whole thing cost me a whopping 8 dollars as I got the boxes for free from the back of a grocery store, and took me maybe an hour to build with no tools but an box cutter, an ice pick, and a staple gun. The idea in Dunninger's is a wire form, which I felt a bit difficult to build and transport, but the method is the same. Has only one angle, directly behind.

"Now here's the man with the 25 cent hands, that two bit magician..."

MercurioRegular user
Seattle, WA USA
113 Posts

Posted: Jun 29, 2012 09:40 pm

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Sorry for resurrecting an old thread, but the memories it brought back were quite amusing. There's a floating ball effect in DEOM that's hilariously unworkable. The performer wears a tank of compressed air with tubing that goes down the arm and nds at the fingertips. A ball magically floats in air. Ummm. Okay. The illustration shows it "floating" quite distance into the audience.

Of course, this couldn't really work. But it's one of the many treasures in that book.

Brett

P.S. In the interests of complete disclosure, I inserted a pipe dream effect of my own in my book "The Propshop: E-Z Tricks with Magical Accessories" that Robbins published in 1975. Yep, it's the duck in the lake that dives down and comes back with the selected card in its bill.

MehtasInner circle
England, UK
1613 Posts

Posted: Jun 30, 2012 07:33 am

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Mercurio,

Even though the method sounds CRAZY, a certain well known creator (and a genius) floats an ashtray with a method not too far away.

PM me and I will give you the link of a demo clip.

I think the one that takes the biscuit in DEOM is an effect called the vanishing doll. You've got a whole table with a heating coil inside the centre poll. you place a wax doll and cover it with paper tube. the wax melts away and the spectators think the doll has vanished ! !

I don't know how to explain the wax driping down the table or how to kill time while the wax SLOWLEY melts away.

A Magazine is a bunch of printed pages that tell you what's coming in the next issue.

Wizard of OzInner circle
Most people wish I didn't have
3223 Posts

Posted: Jul 1, 2012 02:04 pm

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Sadly, this was the first magic book I purchased, as it was being sold at Waldens books, back in the day (I was probably around 9). The methods almost scared me away from even attempting magic, as I was beginning to think that every effect was so contrived.

Fortunately, I discovered the magic section in our local library, and found Greater Magic and Tarbell. Saved...

Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.

MehtasInner circle
England, UK
1613 Posts

Posted: Jul 1, 2012 02:44 pm

0

Quote:

On 2012-07-01 14:04, Wizard of Oz wrote:

The methods almost scared me away from even attempting magic....

Could have been worst.

Your first book could have been Al Jaffee's Mad Book Of Magic

A Magazine is a bunch of printed pages that tell you what's coming in the next issue.

PayneInner circle
Seattle
4509 Posts

Posted: Jul 2, 2012 11:11 am

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Quote:

On 2012-06-29 21:40, Mercurio wrote:
Sorry for resurrecting an old thread, but the memories it brought back were quite amusing. There's a floating ball effect in DEOM that's hilariously unworkable. The performer wears a tank of compressed air with tubing that goes down the arm and nds at the fingertips. A ball magically floats in air. Ummm. Okay. The illustration shows it "floating" quite distance into the audience.

Of course, this couldn't really work. But it's one of the many treasures in that book.

One of the big shows at Disneyland or Disneyworld had a Sorcerers Apprentice segment where Mickey Mouse came out and floated a ball pretty much using this exact same method. So it's naot as impossible as you think.

"America's Foremost Satirical Magician" -- Jeff McBride.

roberto37New user
57 Posts

Posted: Jul 12, 2012 10:25 pm

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I think that this book is very good to have inspirations for effect that need a new method.

SHLONKYNew user
17 Posts

Posted: Jul 24, 2012 05:39 am

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It may be a coincidence I stumbled upon this thread...

I have just this second started researching a book I purchased around 8 years ago by BOB DUNN. Some of my prize secrets were found in this book and so I thought id find more by bob....turns out he was actually a cartoonist who was very close to dunninger and other magicians who I'm assuming helped him out with this book (entitled magic for all - 1954).

it seems its the only magic book dunn did as he never claimed to be an actual magician. so, I think I'm going to research into dunninger instead. ..and as it happens, I click on this section of the Café and the first thing I see is dunningers name

it seems the book was reprinted in 2010 by kessinger, I am lucky enough to have the first print in mint condition, and from my memory there were a few tricks (one involving a coin) that no longer works due to todays date! id love to see if this is recreated, or wiped off the face of the earth?

if anyone has anything to reccomend for dunninger or the likes then I'm open to ears.
thanks

MoxahallaSpecial user
563 Posts

Posted: Aug 27, 2012 06:16 pm

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Remember--this book (originally published in the mid-1920's "Popular Magic" magazines, as I stated above)was meant for the PUBLIC.

We can be THANKFUL for the many bogus methods within..which basically "expose" nothing...but the readers THINK otherwise.

Likewise, isn't that the cleverness of the many bogus "exposures" on the "Masked Magician" TV Specials? --the public think they're being told a big secret, when in fact - its a purposely bogus & laughable explanation (i.e a forklift used to levitate a woman).

For those who laugh at the methods in DCEOM....I think Dunninger and the publishers knew exactly what they were doing!